Your Questions, Answered: Measures to Strengthen the Cocoa Sector 2020

Yes there is a cap on the growth in group membership for Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire only. The details of this can be found in clause 1.B. 1.3 of the Policy for Farm and Supply Chain Certification in Cocoa v2.1

1. For groups with less than 2000 producers, the total number of certified producers in a group shall only grow by 30% over the whole certification year in comparison to the total number of certified producers in the previous certification year (certification audit and/or extension audit).
2. Groups with more than 2000 producers shall only grow by 10% over the whole certification year in comparison to the total number of certified producers in the previous certification year (certification audit and/or extension audit)

For all transition audits i.e. from 1^st July 2021 – 30^th June 2022, the requirements of the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Standard Farm Requirements apply, as well as the additional requirements of the Cocoa Policy V2.1.

For Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire:

1. For year 1 of certification (1 July 2022–30 June 2023), geolocation data is available for 100% of all farm units, of which at least 30% is in the form of polygons. This is an acceleration of requirement 1.2.14 L1 in the RA 2020 Sustainable Agricultural Standard.
2. In year 4 (start of second certification cycle), Polygons are available for 100% of the farm units. This is an acceleration of requirement 1.2.15 L2 in the RA 2020 Sustainable Agricultural Standard

There are no additional requirements for Nigeria and Cameroon than those of the Standard.

All Farm Certificate Holder (CH), whatever their crop or location, need to submit their Group Member Registry (GMR) on the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform (RACP) prior to the audit in order to obtain their deforestation and encroachment risk analyses.

All groups need to indicate in the new GMR template (Annex S13) the National ID of each group member which has this information available..

For Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana specifically, groups also need to indicate in the GMR the number of group members which are in possession of a National ID. There is also a minimum requirement for each country. For Côte d’Ivoire,  groups must indicate the National ID number of at least 30% of their group members. For Ghana this is 20%

Auditors will check the accuracy of the information  in the GMR during the audit and  raise a non-conformity if any discrepancy is found between what is indicated therein  and what is cross-checked at producer level. The auditor will also raise a non-conformity if, during the audit, it is found that a  group member is in possession of a national ID and that this was not indicated in the registry.

Ghana

• Groups need to indicate the personal ID number of group members which is shown on the Ghana Card. Therefore the number indicated in the GMR shall be the  13 digit number under ‘personal ID number’ as shown on the front side of the card.

Côte d’Ivoire

These are the options for groups:

1. If the group member is in possession of the new national identity card (Carte Nationale d’Identité – CNI), the NNI (Numero National d’Identification) on the flip side of the card must be indicated.
2. If the group member is not yet in possession of the new identity card (CNI), the “numéro d’immatriculation” which can be found either on the old National Identity card (Carte Nationale d’Identité) or on the voter’s card (Carte d’électeur), must be indicated.
3. For non-Ivorian group members, the GMR needs to show the number indicated on their residency card (Carte consulaire for Burkina Faso and NINA for Mali)).

Nigeria

Groups need to use the 11-digit National Identity Number (NIN) in the GMR for their group members. The NIN can be found on the National Identity Number slip issued to every citizen who has enrolled with the national identity management commission.

Cameroon

Any of the ancient, provisory or new national ID formats will be accepted in the GMR for group members.

If some group members do not yet have the National Government ID or the proof of identity as indicated by the Rainforest Alliance, then this cell should be left blank for that group member only (Column O – 15. National ID Number). However, groups are expected to get those group members to  start the administrative process as soon as possible  to obtain their government ID.

For cocoa farm CH in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, please see the Policy for Farm and Supply Chain Certification in Cocoa v2.1 on the minimum percentage of group members which should indicate their government ID in the registry.

For further guidance on which government ID to indicate per country, consult the Rainforest Alliance  Instructions for Cocoa Groups in Ghana, Côte D’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Nigeria on National Identification Requirements.

The audit allocation process will be in effect for all new and existing cocoa farm certificate holders in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana from July 1st 2021.

In order to be allocated for the October 2021 harvest, all cocoa groups in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana must have already registered on the Rainforest Alliance Certification Platform. It is essential that registration  is done thoroughly to ensure that groups receive the correct contextualized checklist for their operations. This will ensure thorough preparation is done by the groups prior to their audit. Once groups have registered and been approved by the Rainforest Alliance, they will be  allocated to an approved Certification Body. Communication to both groups and Certification Bodies on the allocation process will begin in June and continue until the beginning of the harvest.

New groups and groups with licenses expiring before September 30th, 2021, will be prioritized for both audit allocation and audits. To know more about the allocation process, please refer to the Cocoa Policy V2.1, Chapter 3.3.

Yes, on September 6th 2021 the Rainforest Alliance published Policy for Farm and Supply Chain Certification in Cocoa V2.1. This policy is applicable  for all transition audits of both existing and new cocoa groups taking place from 1^st July 2021 – 30^th June 2022.

The migration of traceability data from the Good Inside Portal (GIP) into MultiTrace is now completed.

Our traceability system supports the proposed interventions. This includes allowing for origin matching mass balance, seal use and approvals, shared responsibility and other elements of the 2020 cocoa strategy. For more details on the implementation and migration timelines please see our page on Understanding End-to-End Cocoa Traceability and the Multitrace Platform.